This invention relates to an information processing apparatus and method and a providing medium, and more particularly to an information processing apparatus and method and a providing medium by which, especially when a new node is defined as a prototype using some or all of nodes which form a predetermined world and a node which should be routed to the defined prototype is present, an interface is automatically added to the defined prototype.
It is known that, in the Internet which is a computer network built up in a worldwide scale, the VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) is commonly used as a describing language by which three-dimensional information can be handled uniformly making use of a framework of the WWW (World Wide Web) which provides various information.
As an information providing system which can be used on the Internet, the WWW developed by the CERN (European Center for Nuclear Research) of Switzerland is known. The WWW allows browsing of information of a text, an image, sound and so forth in the form of a hypertext, and asynchronously transfers information stored in a WWW server to a terminal such as a personal computer in accordance with a protocol called HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol).
A WWW server is composed of the HTTP, server software called daemon and HTML files in which hypertext information is stored. It is to be noted that the daemon is a background program for executing management and process when operation is performed on the UNIX. The hypertext information is represented using a describing language called HTML (HyperText Markup Language). In a description of a hypertext by the HTML, a logical structure of a sentence is represented by a format designation called tag placed between xe2x80x9c less than xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9c greater than xe2x80x9d. Description of a link to other information is performed using link information called anchor. In order to designate a location where information is present using the anchor, a character train called URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is used.
The protocol to be used for transfer a file described in the HTML is the HTTP. The HTTP has a function of transmitting a request for information from a client to a WWW server and transferring hypertext information of an HTML file to the client.
The WWW browser is used frequently for an environment in which the WWW is utilized. The WWW browser is the client software such as the Netscape Navigator (trademark of Netscape Communications, a company of United States). The WWW browser can be used to browse files so called homepages on WWW servers on the Internet, which are spread in a worldwide scale and conform to the URL, and allows accessing to various information sources of the WWW by successively tracing homepages between which a link is extended like so-called net surfing.
In recent years, specifications of a three-dimensional graphics describing language called VRML which further expands the WWW to allow description of a three-dimensional imaginary space or setting of a link of a hypertext to an object drawn in three-dimensional graphics so that WWW servers can be successively accessed tracing such links have been developed, and a VRML browser for displaying a three-dimensional space described based on the specifications of the VRML has been developed.
Details of the VRML are disclosed in such documents as, for example, Mark Pesce, xe2x80x9cVRML: Browsing and Building Cyberspacexe2x80x9d, 1995 New Readers Publishing ISBN 1-56205-498-8; Koichi Matsuda and Yasuaki Honda, xe2x80x9cLatest Trend of VRML and CyberPassagexe2x80x9d, Kyoritsu Publishing, 1996, Vol. 28, No. 7, pp. 29-36, No. 8, pp. 57-65, No. 9, pp. 29-36 and No. 10, pp. 49-58, and so forth.
Further, the official and complete specifications of xe2x80x9cThe Virtual Reality Modeling Language Version 2.0, ISO/IEC CD 14772xe2x80x9d are laid open in xe2x80x9chttp://www.vrml.org/Specifications/VRML 2.0/FINAL/spec/index.htmlxe2x80x9d, and the Japanese version of the same is disclosed in xe2x80x9chttp://www.webcity.co.jp/info/andoh/VRML/vrm12.0/spec-jp/index.htmlxe2x80x9d.
Further, for example, software for a browser for the VRML 2.0 and a shared server called xe2x80x9cCommunity Place (trade mark) Browser/Bureauxe2x80x9d has been developed and put on the market by the applicant of the present patent application, Sony Corporation, and the xcex2 version (temporary provision version) of the above software can be downloaded from the home page http://vs.sgny co.jp through the Internet.
With the VRML 2.0 described above, it is possible to describe and represent an autonomous behavior of an object in a three-dimensional imaginary space. If it is tried to produce VRML contents using VRML 2.0 with which an object moves around dynamically in a three-dimensional imaginary space, the following operation process is followed. It is to be noted that, in the following description, an aggregate of VRML files, script files and so forth for realizing a series of behaviors of an object in an imaginary space is called VRML contents.
In the following, a series of operations for producing such VRML contents is described.
A model production operation is an operation of describing a shape, a position and so forth of an object (model) to be arranged in an imaginary space in accordance with the VRML 2.0 to produce a basic VRML file.
Description of a sensor node is an operation of adding to a VRML file a description of a sensor node such ads TouchSensor which generates an event when a click operation (pointing operation) by a mouse is performed to any objects in an imaginary space, TimeSensor which generates an event when a preset time comes or the like.
An editing operation of routing is an operation of adding to a VRML file a description of routing for transmitting an event generated in response to a pointing operation to an object to which a sensor node is added or the like.
Description of a script node is an operation of adding to a VRML file a description regarding a script node for delivering an event transmitted by routing to an external script.
Production of a script file is an operation of describing (programming) a script with the Java language (Java is a trademark of Sun Microsystems of the United States) for realizing a behavior set in advance to each object in an imaginary space based on an event transmitted through a script node.
Desired VRML contents are produced through such various operations as described above.
If it is tried to produce VRML contents which involve autonomous behaviors of an object in an imaginary space based on the VRML 2.0, existing authoring software (for example, the 3D Studio Max (trademark) or the like) called modeler is used to produce a shape or animation of the object, and the shape or animation thus produced is outputted as a file of the format of the VRML 2.0. If the modeler does not support the format of the VRML 2.0, then it is necessary to use a converter or the like to convert the produced file into a file of the format of the VRML 2.0.
Then, such operations as to add descriptions of various sensor nodes and so forth prescribed by the VRML 2.0 to a VRML file using a text editor, production of a script with the Java language, addition of a corresponding script node to the script, addition of a route sentence and so forth are repeated. Then, finally upon confirmation of actual operation, a VRML browser conforming to the VRML 2.0 is started and the operations of the object are confirmed by click operations of a mouse and so forth.
By the way, according to the VRML 2.0, a user can define and expand a new node type and can use the defined node as if it were an existing incorporated node. A method wherein a user defines a new node in this manner is called prototype (ProtoType). When the prototype is defined, a keyword named PROTO is used.
However, authoring systems of the VRML 2.0 little support editing of the prototype and accordingly have a subject in that, when a new node is to be defined as a prototype, the process such as setting of an input/output of routing must be performed by manual operation.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an information processing apparatus and method and a providing medium by which editing of a prototype can be performed readily.
In order to attain the object described above, according to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing apparatus which hierarchically displays nodes, which form a world, as a current scope and defines a new node as a prototype using some or all of the nodes of the hierarchically displayed current scope. The appratus comprises addition means for adding, when the prototype is defined using some of the nodes of the current scope, if the current scope includes a node which should be routed to the prototype, an interface as a field for inputting or outputting an event therethrough to the prototype, and routing means for routing the node and the prototype through the interface added by the addition means.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing method wherein nodes which form a world are hierarchically displayed as a current scope and a new node is defined as a prototype using some or all of the nodes of the hierarchically displayed current scope. The method comprises an addition step of adding, when the prototype is defined using some of the nodes of the current scope, if the current scope includes a node which should be routed to the prototype, an interface as a field for inputting or outputting an event therethrough to the prototype, and a routing step of routing the node and the prototype through the interface added by the addition step.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a providing medium for providing a computer program which can be read and executed by an information processing apparatus, which hierarchically displays nodes, which form a world, as a current scope and defines a new node as a prototype using some or all of the nodes of the hierarchically displayed current scope, to execute an addition step of adding, when the prototype is defined using some of the nodes of the current scope, if the current scope includes a node which should be routed to the prototype, an interface as a field for inputting or outputting an event therethrough to the prototype, and a routing step of routing the node and the prototype through the interface added by the addition step.
With the information processing apparatus, the information processing method and the providing medium described above, when a prototype is defined using some of nodes of a current scope, if the current scope includes a node which should be routed to the prototype, an interface as a field for inputting or outputting an event therethrough is added to the prototype, and the node and the prototype are routed therebetween through the thus added interface. Consequently, editing of the prototype can be performed readily.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like parts or elements denoted by like reference symbols.